On 30/09/2011 12:14, Jake wrote:
Trying to photograph spiders today made me realise that I need a
better digital camera as I found it impossible to focus on something
that big (garden spiders with bodies about three quarters of an inch
plus legs are big in my book)! I've got lots of photos of foliage and
brickwork with blurry blobs in front.

It might be worth practising with your camera to see how well it
performs at macro. Some will only focus correctly in macro mode if the
lens is at a very particular focal length usually shortest, but
sometimes middle or longest. If the front element of your camera lens is
threaded then you could get close up lenses to put on the front.

A handful will focus right up to the surface of the front element - most
will lose focus lock at about 2"/5cm.

Is anyone able to recommend a decent digital camera for close up
photos of little creatures/flowers and the like? I'm happy to spend a
few hundred squid for a good one though for that money I'd like a
proper viewfinder.

For macro photography a proper viewfinder is a big disadvantage unless
you have a through the lens DSLR. The viewfinder parallax errors when
you get close to something are huge. If it is centred in the viewfinder
then it is not in front of the main camera lens!

You should not need to spend much more than £100 to get something fairly
capable in this department - for instance the Lumix FS35
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-Lu...f=pd_rhf_p_t_1

(though other slightly more expensive ones may be better suited)

I find my Ixus 100IS somewhat frustrating to use in macro mode. If you
are serious about high quality close-ups then a DSLR is the best bet.

Worth asking specifically in rec.photo.digital (but beware of the
trolls) - someone might have experience of best buy P&S for macro work.

Regards,
Martin Brown